


Taking Back Hope

by fleurdeliser, ohnoktcsk, tuesdaysgone



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Drugged Character, Kidnapping, M/M, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 04:06:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6938986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurdeliser/pseuds/fleurdeliser, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohnoktcsk/pseuds/ohnoktcsk, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesdaysgone/pseuds/tuesdaysgone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first message comes while he’s in the middle of calibrating the laser on one of his latest guns. He ignores it until he’s done, then straightens, holding out his palm and reading the message that comes up on the holoscreen.</p><p> <i>Helios remembers and so will you.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Back Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [coruscera](http://archiveofourown.org/users/impractica/pseuds/coruscera) for the beta job! You're the best!

The first message comes while he’s in the middle of calibrating the laser on one of his latest guns. He ignores it until he’s done, then straightens, holding out his palm and reading the message that comes up on the holoscreen.

_Helios remembers and so will you._

His forehead wrinkles and he reads it again. He gets weird messages sometimes, but this one is a little weirder than most. He tries to trace it back and comes up with nothing. “Okay, you wanna dance,” he mutters. The modified Loader unit running the digi-struct fabricator looks over at him curiously. “Uh, not—it’s a figure of speech,” he explains.

“Unit Rhys is talking to itself again,” the bot says, sounding probably as resigned as its circuits allow.

“Unit Rhys is talking to… it doesn’t matter,” Rhys says and prods at the message again. It doesn’t seem like the handiwork of any of Vaughn’s people. Even the programmers in his group are fairly useless without all the expensive trappings Helios had to offer. And if the message _isn’t_ from one of Vaughn’s people, the fact that it mentions Helios is… worrying.

He keeps burrowing into the code for a while until someone comes to steal him away to fight fires somewhere else. Literal fires. Just another day on Pandora. When he finally gets back into his actual work, another message pops up.

_Your crimes cannot go unpunished. We will start with those who could have stopped you before you ever left._

This time, when he can’t trace the signal back, he immediately calls Vaughn.

“Hey bro, what’s up?” Vaughn answers when the video call pops up.

Rhys breathes out. “Uh. Nothing much. Just. Got a weird message and wanted to check in.”

“Weird message?” In the background, Rhys can hear the normal sounds of daily life in the Helios compound, and he lets himself relax a little.

“Yeah,” Rhys sighs. “Weird. Talked about Helios.”

“Huh,” Vaughn replies. “Like… good weird or bad weird?”

“Definitely bad weird,” Rhys replies tiredly and slumps down in his office chair. “Hey, can I come for a visit this weekend?”

Vaughn snorts. “Dude, you know you don’t actually have to _ask_ , right? Of course.”

“Well, I uh. You know. Don’t want to be a hassle.”

“Oh my god, Rhys,” Vaughn says and rubs his forehead. “You are never a hassle. Like, ever. Stop. Come see us.”

“Okay,” Rhys says, biting back a smile. “I will. Can I—do you guys need anything?”

“Just to see you,” Vaughn replies.

Rhys breathes out and smiles. “Okay. I’m still bringing you stuff, though.”

“Far be it from me to stomp on your wonderful and giving nature,” Vaughn smiles. Vaughn smiles a lot these days. He’s all… twinkly. And beardy. It’s different. Definitely not in a bad way. Rhys kind of loves it. Whenever he’s around Vaughn or talks to him, Rhys feels better. Something in him is already settling, just knowing that he’ll see Vaughn soon.

Maybe someone will have taken down that creepy statue of Jack with his name on it, even. Everyone else seems to think it’s funny, so they haven’t done anything about it. Normally, Rhys would even agree. If it were a statue of literally anyone else. At least it doesn’t have a head.

Then again, maybe that’s extra creepy.

Whichever it is, he really wants the statue gone. He’s not above making some charges and blowing it up himself, but he’s hoping the Children of Helios will come to their senses first.

He also sends off an ECHO to Fiona, and another to Sasha. Just… to be safe. Neither of them reply immediately, though that’s nothing to worry about, with them.

He tries to go back to his work, but it’s unsatisfying -he really just wants to talk to Vaughn more. But their conversations aren’t like they were back—before. They’re nothing like before. Nothing will ever be like it was before again. He’s glad about some parts of that. He can’t help but miss other things.

He doesn’t get to brood about it for too long. First one of the Loader units pings him to let him know the results of a simulation, then one of his engineers has a prototype for him to approve. He likes to be busy, and he likes being the boss. He should quit whining, even if it’s only in his own head.

He works until he’s barely keeping his eyes open, then makes his way back up to the little apartment he made for himself where Cassius used to stay. Tomorrow he’ll get things settled here, and then he’ll go to the Helios camp. Knowing that, it’s easy to fall asleep.

//

He wakes up to another message.

_I’ll take them. One by one._

“Fuck you,” he mutters. At least there’s a message from Sasha, too.

_Big score at the swap last week, found some bits you might like. Are you eating?_

He’s about to answer that of course he’s eating, stop nagging, but then he realizes he didn’t have dinner the night before. He just… gets distracted. And forgets. Which, he knows, is why they nag him. Because friendship, or something.

_I’ll take a break now,_ he replies. _Everything ok in Hollow Point?_

_Same as usual_ , she replies a few minutes later. _I hear you’re going to Helios soon._

Honestly, he’s not even surprised. _You’ve already told Vaughn to make sure I’m eating, haven’t you._

_You need to ask?_

Rhys shakes his head.

_Also, Vaughn really doesn’t need my help remembering to take care of you. That’s like. His primary objective in life._

_Pretty sure he has a few other things to worry about_ , Rhys shoots back, finally hauling himself out of bed and over to the makeshift kitchen. He really is hungry.

He gets another message just as he’s about to sit down with a bacon sandwich.

_Another gone._

It’s the first message in past tense, and it makes his blood feel like ice. He takes a deep breath and calls Vaughn. He doesn’t get an answer.

He swallows hard and tries again. Nothing—the ECHO doesn’t even connect. He tries not to panic, brings up his palm display and runs a location trace on Vaughn’s comm. When it comes up empty, he feels it like a punch to the gut.

“No, no, this is not good.” He taps frantically at the keyboard, then starts running location traces on everyone else he can think of. Yvette isn’t coming up either, and he tries to tamp down his panic. The rest are all within range of where they should be, but according to his scans, Vaughn and Yvette have fallen off the grid completely. He sends frantic messages to everyone else, asking if they’ve heard from the other two. He needs to get to the Helios camp, right fucking now.

While he’s still on the way down to his car, he gets another message—from August.

_I just jumped out of a moving damn vehicle to escape someone claiming to be getting revenge on you._

Rhys calls him as he skids into the garage. “August,” he barks. “What happened?”

“Someone knocked me out and I woke up on a truck to someone ranting about how you ruined everything,” August replies. “I jumped off.”

“Where are you?” Rhys asks, fear rising in his throat. “Are you safe?”

“Am I fucking safe?” He can hear August snort. “Unless someone knocks me out again.”

“Are they coming after you again? Do you have any idea who they are?” Rhys asks, scrambling into the Outrunner that Springs had fixed him up with and throwing it into gear.

“I said no.”

“What about Fiona and Sasha?” Rhys says tightly.

“No idea,” he replies.

“Get to Hollow Point,” Rhys tells him. “I’m going to Helios. I can’t find Vaughn or Yvette.”

August lets out a long string of curses and cuts the comm link. Rhys slams down on the gas and guns it out of the garage.

“If people could just communicate,” he growls, and it’s probably ironic that it’s him saying it, but August is a giant pain in the ass, and still Rhys is worried.

He spends the entire drive to Helios about to throw up. He actually does throw up when he finally parks the car outside the compound. He’d seen the smoke from miles away.

There’s a knot of people standing near the entrance. “Rhys!” someone calls when they spot him. Jenkins, he thinks. “Rhys, what do we do?”

Rhys takes a deep breath. Then another. “Is anyone hurt?” he asks.

“We tried to stop them before they could make it out of the camp,” says a woman who he thinks he’s seen in the command center. “A few of our people were injured, but… they wanted Vaughn and Yvette more than they wanted to kill anyone, I guess.”

“You did what you could, I’m sure,” Rhys gulps. “The smoke?” he asks.

“A bunch of flashbangs to scare and disorient people,” someone else answers.

Rhys nods. “Will you be all right? I have to find Vaughn and Yvette.”

There’s a worried murmur from the gathered crowd, but the woman from the command center says, loud enough to be heard over the rest, “We… we’ll re-secure the camp. Help the wounded. And step up patrols, in case anything else… just in case.”

“Who can tell me where they went?” Rhys asks.

“They went south when they left the compound,” someone answers.

“Two trucks and a modded Outrunner,” pipes up someone else.

Shit. He is so unprepared for this. “Thanks,” he says. "Anything else I should know?

There’s a general agreement of “no.”

“Okay. Lock down the camp. And if you find anything, anything at all, I want to know about it.” He doesn’t even pretend that it’s not an order. He feels bad he can’t stay and help, but Vaughn and Yvette are his top priority. Whatever is happening, it’s personal. Someone is trying to get to Rhys through his friends. Which means… this is his fault, too.

When he gets back in the car, he breathes through his nausea for a moment, then starts driving south. He gets a call from August not long after.

“They’re gone,” he says. “I can’t find them anywhere.” Rhys slams his metal fist against the steering wheel. “Easy,” says August, which is rich, considering the edge of rage in his own voice. “You’re no good to them if you crash that thing.”

Rhys growls, takes a breath. “Is there a trail to follow? Will anyone in that pisshole town even talk to you about it?”

“Hey, this is my pisshole town,” August snaps. “Someone saw something. I’ll find ’em.”

Rhys takes a deep breath before he pisses August off more. Divide and conquer, he tells himself. “Call me if you find anything,” he says. “And thanks.”

He cuts the comm and focuses, one eye on the road and the other on the ECHOnet, bringing up a map and scanning for any surveillance footage looping in the area. When he finds some, he scans for vehicles, timestamps.

He finds a group of vehicles matching the descriptions of the Children of Helios and follows as well as he can. He’s about three hours behind them. He jumps from input to input, sometimes losing track of the convoy for long, terrifying stretches of time before finding them. He almost drives off the road—such as it is—more times than he wants to admit. His nerves are shot already, but fury burns underneath. He will not lose his friends again. He will find whoever is responsible for this and make them regret ever laying a finger on them. He snarls.

He has no idea what he’s going to do when he finds them, how he’s going to help them. Not on his own. This was a stupid plan. It’s just that literally everyone he would call has already disappeared. Except.

“Zer0,” he breathes. He opens a comm link and throws up a prayer to anything that might be listening. “Zer0,” he gasps, “I have some people who need killing.”

It takes a few moments, but then he hears Zer0’s voice. “Where are the targets? How lucrative is this job? Shall I meet you there?”

“They have Fiona and Sasha, and Vaughn and Yvette, and possibly also LB and Gortys, I don’t know, I can’t reach them. I’m tracking a group of them through the Wastes south of the Helios camp.”

A quiet humming sound. “How many hostiles?”

“I don’t know,” Rhys replies. “I know there are at least three vehicles and they were able to take some of the most capable people on Pandora.”

“Did they give any demands?”

“No,” Rhys says shortly. “They want to punish me. I just don’t know how they intend to do it.”

“The south Wastes, you said?”

“I’m sending you a live trace on my ECHO,” Rhys says.

“I will see you there.”

Rhys takes a breath and lets it out. He feels a little bit better. Having Zer0’s help will be… way better than him trying anything alone. He pings August. “You found anything?”

“They were in and out quick, but there’s always someone who sees something,” August says. In the background of the call Rhys hears panicked yelling and angry yelling. The person doing the angry yelling sounds like Tector. “There’s an easy way and a hard way to do this,” he hears August say calmly, muffled like he’s turned away. August really does scare the shit out of Rhys sometimes.

“Listen, I’ve got Zer0 on board. They’re meeting me somewhere in the Wastes south of Helios. When you’re done there, come find us,” Rhys says.

“You’d better have a goddamn plan,” August warns him. “And you had better start talking, or else things are going to get real unpleasant, real fast.”

“Yeah, uh, have fun with that,” Rhys says quickly. “Sending coordinates now, bye.”

He tightens his grip on the steering wheel and keeps driving. He tries not to think about what could be happening to his friends. To Vaughn. They’ve all come through too damn much, together and apart, to let some asshole bandits take them down.

The town sprouting out of the desert a few clicks ahead of him nearly takes him by surprise. He wonders if he should risk stopping to see if he can get some extra supplies. He has plenty of guns—not that he’s become particularly good at shooting them.

“There’s always someone who sees something,” he mutters to himself. He takes a breath and pulls off the road, patting his side to make sure his gun is in the holster and he’s got his stun baton on him. He’s pulling up all the data he can as he goes: security cameras, comm chatter, ECHOnet messages. If he’s doing this, he’s doing it right.

No one shoots at him as he walks, so he counts that as a win. Finally, he hits on something. Two people are having a conversation over an unsecured ECHO link, talking about an unusual ruckus to the west of town. It’s worth checking out.

He’s not really dressed to do anything other than stand out, which could be problematic. He really should have done a little more thinking before he left. He sighs. He’ll just have to improvise. “That, I’m good at,” he mutters.

He walks west. It doesn’t take long until he hears the ruckus. Gunfire—SMGs and shotguns, he thinks, just going by the sound of the fighting. This is great. Fantastic. Not a problem at all. But then, he hears a familiar voice.

“Why are you doing this? Someone help!”

“Gortys? Gortys!” he shouts and breaks into a sprint.

It doesn’t take long to find the fighting. He takes cover and assesses the situation. Gortys is hemmed into what looks like an old outbuilding by several goons. He can hear her yelling, hear her moving back and forth, dodging bullets. He’s behind them and they haven’t spotted him yet.

If Fiona were here, she’s already have come up with three different plans for dealing with them and getting to Gortys. Historically his plans are not great, but he’s got to try. He scans everything in the immediate vicinity with his ECHO eye. There’s got to be something he can use to help take these guys down.

There’s a propane tank about ten feet away from the cluster of goons. It’s a big enough target that he probably won’t miss, and if he can just distract them, maybe he can buy Gortys time to get out of there. He focuses, aims, fires. There’s a nice big gratifying explosion a moment later.

The goons go flying and he yells, “Gortys, come over here!”

“Rhys?!” she replies, and he sees her peek around the entry.

“Come on,” he yells, already starting to run. He can hear her following. He can’t hear anything else following, which is a plus.

When he gets to the main road, he risks slowing to look over his shoulder and spots her zooming up behind him. He’s pretty sure she’s going faster than usual. He knows, knows that tank didn’t take the bandits out, and there’s no way they’re not going to be coming after them, but if he can get them to the car…

He needs to keep heading south. He’s glad to have Gortys with him, of course, but she’s not—the rest of them. He needs to get all of them and he can’t stop until he does.

He careens around a corner and toward the car, opens the door and waits as Gortys launches herself in. He gets in after her, slamming the door behind him and putting his foot on the gas. The tires spin in the gravel, but eventually find traction and Rhys drives as fast as he can without looking back.

For a minute, for one goddamn minute, he thinks that maybe they were actually lucky enough. Then a pair of bandit technicals scream over a ridge on either side of him. He swears, earning a reproachful noise from Gortys.

He sighs. “I’m not the CEO of Atlas for nothing,” he mutters, and pushes the boost button. If his ’Runner hadn’t been a Janey Springs Special, they might have had problems. They still have problems, namely bullets, but driving erratically is one of Rhys’s top skills.

It takes a few more minutes of driving before Rhys feels like he can breathe again. “Hey, Gortys,” he finally says.

“Hi, Rhys!” she says cheerfully. “Thanks for rescuing me.”

“Any time,” he replies and reaches out to pat her casing. “What happened, anyway? Where’s LB?”

“I don’t know!” Gortys says, throwing her arms into the air. “It just all happened so fast! We were on our way to visit the Helios camp, because Vaughn asked us to come and say hi, and then all of a sudden everything started exploding!”

“Vaughn?” Rhys repeats.

“Oh no, it was supposed to be a surprise for you,” Gortys says sheepishly. “Sorry.”

The noise that comes out of Rhys then is half a laugh, half a sob. He takes a breath. “It’s okay, Gortys,” he says after a moment. “Some—someone took everyone. We have to find them.”

“Everyone?” Gortys asks. “You mean like, all our friends? Why would anybody do that!?”

“They’re mad at me,” Rhys mutters.

“Why?” she asks. “You’re great! You’re Rhys!”

Rhys has to press his lips together, take a deep breath, and blink rapidly for a minute. “I’m not sure, exactly, but… I can think of a few reasons,” he says quietly, trying to keep his voice steady. Fuck, he hopes she doesn’t ask him what they are. He isn’t sure he can handle saying it out loud, not when his friends are out there somewhere paying for what he’d done.

“Where are we going to look?” she asks.

He swallows down his relief. “Well, I’ve tracked them south, so we’re going there. August and Zer0 are going to meet us there and we’re going to get our friends back.”

“Okay!” she says enthusiastically. Rhys smiles and reaches out to take her hand. Gortys rotates her chassis so she can clasp his hand in both of hers. “Let’s go kick their butts!”

“Okay, Gortys. We will.”

//

They get down to the wastes before Rhys gets a message from Zer0. _Up and to the left, I have now set up a camp, come and meet me here,_ followed by coordinates.

Rhys forwards the message to August and turns left. They find Zer0 at the crest of a hill, sheltered by a rock outcropping—the perfect sniper perch.

“You’ve brought the robot, the little one who talks? Where is the other?”

“Hi, Zer0!” Gortys chirps, then adds sadly, “I don’t know where Loader Bot is.”

“We’ll find him, Gortys,” Rhys promises.

“Likely with the rest,” Zer0 says. “Who else are we expecting? We should not waste time.”

“August,” Rhys bites out. He activates his comm. “ETA?” he asks August.

“Ten, if I don’t run across any more assholes,” August snaps.

Great. “Um. More reconnaissance?” he suggests.

Zero’s response is a “:S” flashing over their helmet.

Rhys shrugs and looks at Gortys. “Can you help me search the nearby hubs?”

“You got it, Rhys!” Her optics glow as she links up to the ECHOnet. She grumbles to herself as she starts sorting through readings. It’s pretty adorable. He did miss her a lot. He takes a breath and dives in himself. He’s working on scanning for suspicious energy spikes when Gortys tells him, “Look at this!” and pushes something over to his palm display.

He opens it up and frowns down at the schematic. “That’s… weird,” he says. It looks like a rough schematic of his arm. No one is fucking with his arm again.

“Totally!” Gortys agrees.

Rhys follows the filepath and finds a cache of files. They’re all encrypted, but that’s hardly a problem. Of course when he gets them unencrypted, they’re evil plans involving computer viruses. And not even good ones.

“Did they really think I wouldn’t have safeguards against this kind of thing?” Rhys asks. “I’m not stupid. Anymore.”

There’s a bigger problem, which is that the designs he’s finding are familiar. He recognizes Hyperion’s mark on them, even if they aren’t branded with corporate yellow.

“I am so done with this,” he moans up at the sky.

Gortys tugs on his trouser leg. “We’ll fix it,” she assures him and it’s basically the sweetest thing.

Ten minutes later, Zer0 suddenly shoulders their sniper rifle, aiming down the scope toward a cloud of dust on the horizon—a vehicle, Rhys is pretty sure.

“Is it August?” Rhys asks.

“Affirmative, Rhys,” Zer0 replies.

“Good,” Rhys says. They just need to make a plan. Gortys is still working on tracing the file activity back to a stationary site.

Rhys tries not to pace as he reviews all the documents. Their plans are shitty. He’s pretty sure the only reason they succeeded in taking people is that nobody expected it. But if he’s right, he’s only seeing a part of the overall plan—he still doesn’t know what they plan to do with the others.

August jumps out of his vehicle as soon as it stops moving. He’s covered with grime and very unhappy-looking. Granted, Rhys hasn’t ever really seen August when he didn’t look extremely unhappy. Rhys is pretty sure that’s just his face.

“I got some intel on the bandits that grabbed Sash and Fi,” August says with no preamble.

“And?” Rhys can play that game.

“They’re definitely ex-Hyperion. Must be some that got separated from the rest,” he says.

“Or took off on their own,” Rhys says. “Vaughn was never sure how many of the Helios survivors they’d actually accounted for.”

“Well, they clearly hate you guys,” August says.

“Yeah,” Rhys says with a heavy sigh. “It’s not like they don’t have reason. Sorry you got caught up in it.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t apologize,” August says. “You didn’t kidnap anybody. So let’s go and stick it to the assholes that did.”

“Let’s do it!” Gortys agrees.

“Yes, let’s go now. They will regret taking them. We will enjoy this,” Zer0 says.

//

Gortys manages to pinpoint the origin of the leaked files—an old processing facility an hour’s drive to the southwest. Rhys makes a mental note to have his Loader units search abandoned factories a lot more stringently.

Rhys easily finds the blueprints for the facility and projects them out of his hand. “I will drop in here,” Zer0 says, pointing at a spot on the roof of the building. “You and Gortys come through here,” they say, gesturing at the main entrance. “August, through this vent.”

August, who is checking over his guns—Rhys counts two pistols, an SMG, and what he’s pretty sure is a sawed-off shotgun—grunts his agreement.

Rhys nods. “Let’s go. Zer0, ride with August?” It honestly pains him to say, but it makes more sense and he’s got a lot of equipment and Gortys.

He’s breathing a little easier as they head for their cars. They can do this. They will. He sounds like Gortys. Still, he refuses to have anything but optimistic thoughts about getting back Vaughn and the others.

“Gortys, stay on the network, see if you can scrape up any more security footage or comm chatter. Uh, please,” he adds hastily. He concentrates on driving after that.

The drive goes faster than expected. There’s no real hope they won’t be noticed, so he contacts Zer0 and August. “So, Gortys and I just… walk through the front door and they know we’re coming? That… seems like a bad plan.”

“You got a better one?” August asks him.

“I’m just asking,” Rhys says curtly.

“I will surprise them,” Zer0 says and… that is actually comforting.

He decides that if he’s going to be noticed, he’s going to make himself noticed. “Gortys,” he says thoughtfully. “How do you feel about flamethrowers?”

“I feel good about them,” she says. “As long as they’re for bad guys. Why?”

“I have an idea,” Rhys says, mentally taking stock of the stash of weapons he knows are in a crate in the back of the ’Runner. “It involves flamethrowers,” he adds, probably unnecessarily.

“Rhys,” Gortys says. “You’re saying obvious things again.”

“Yeah, it’s… kind of what I do,” Rhys says. “Anyway, here’s what I’m thinking. We go in spitting fire.”

“Sounds fun!” she says. “And then Zer0 and August surprise them and we surround them.”

“And we find our friends, and we all take these losers down together,” Rhys agrees.

Well. It’s a plan. Rhys has done worse.

A few minutes later, they arrive at the facility. Rhys parks far enough away that they probably won’t get fired on while getting ready. He checks over his stun baton—his own design, more efficient and easier to maneuver than the Hyperion model Yvette had given him all that time ago. Hopefully he won’t need it for a while.

He finds one of the smaller flamethrowers and rigs a holder so Gortys can use it easily. “You’re good at that!” she says.

Rhys smiles. “I like to be prepared.” He doesn’t tell her that he’s been developing weapons for all of them. Just in case. He just didn’t finish fast enough. Then he grabs the bigger flamethrower and makes sure that he’s got plenty of ammo. “Time to go make a ruckus,” he says.

“Yeah!” she says and they walk out toward the facility. The walk is… kind of long, which makes things feel a little anticlimactic. Rhys is scanning for movement, heat signatures, comm chatter—anything that might indicate they’ve been seen.

The ECHO eye is the first to pick up the door sentry. Singular. “Huh,” he says. “Gortys, can you see more people than just the one?”

She spins around, optics flashing. “Nope!”

Okay then. “Well, let’s go ahead and see if setting their front door on fire does the trick.”

She holds the flamethrower at the ready and Rhys smiles down at her. There are a couple of slag runoff barrels a little ways off to the side from the main entrance—Rhys aims his first set of shots at those, pleased when they explode and splatter the walls. He has the sentry at attention now. They’re looking wildly around and Rhys takes aim again.

He hears Gortys say, “Oh boy!” A moment later, there’s another loud BOOM, this time accompanied by the sizzle of electricity. “That was the power main!” Gortys announces.

“August or Zer0, do you think?” Rhys asks.

“Uhhhh, probably August? The schematics show it closer to where he went in the building,” she replies.

There’s shouting happening now, so Rhys takes aim again to make sure the attention is fixed on the two of them. Gouts of flame are pretty distracting. He can’t help the smirk that crosses his face. They’ve got Vaughn. They can burn.

The bullets start coming pretty quickly after that, but they mostly go wide, and the few that don’t bounce harmlessly off his shield. Shields are great. He loves shields. Atlas’s shields are especially great. He’s pretty happy with his life choices at this very moment.

“That’s right,” he mutters, “pay attention to us. Come out here and meet me.” Then he realizes he’s actually yelling that last bit.

It does something, though, because Rhys picks up more movement with his ECHO eye. He aims the flamethrower at the facility’s front door, just in time for it to be kicked open. “Shit,” he barks, jerking the flame up in time to avoid flambéing August.

“Thanks,” August says with a scowl.

“Find anything?” Rhys asks, trying not to get his hopes up.

“Place is a maze,” August says. “But it looks like everything on this end leads to some sort of old processing area—good place to hole up with a bunch of hostages.”

“Resistance?”

“Not anymore,” August smirks.

“Good,” Rhys says. “Let’s see what we can find.”

There’s another explosion from the back half of the building, and a moment later, Zer0’s voice comes over Rhys’s comm, smug. "Whatever that was, it was pretty important. They won’t be happy.

That works for Rhys. “Just don’t blow us up. We’re coming back.”

“Acknowledged, Rhys,” Zer0 replies and the three of them enter the building. In theory, this is an old Hyperion building, but Rhys suspects Jack repurposed it from Atlas. Which means, to add insult to injury, this might even be _his_ fucking building.

Beside him, Gortys lets out the most adorable war cry Rhys has ever heard and shoots a jet of flame at the roof. It sets off the sprinklers, which—is actually okay, since intruder detection systems will shut down, too. What August hasn’t already exploded, anyway. He’s glad he already decided to write this suit off as a loss, though. August’s hair is wilting a little. It’s a little endearing. This whole experience has broken Rhys, clearly.

August wasn’t lying about the building being like a maze. It takes them a while to make their way back to Zer0.

Zer0 is perched on a railing, looking down over a vast warehouse littered with the remains of Hyperion shipping containers. “No activity,” they say when they see the rest of them.

“Just here, or anywhere?” Rhys asks, frowning.

“There is another building,” Zer0 says, pointing across the warehouse.

“Guess they’re expecting us now,” Rhys grumbles.

“Unless they left already,” August suggests.

“C’mon, man,” Rhys whines. “Let’s have hope until we at least get in there.”

“Yeah!” Gortys agrees.

“No harm in hoping,” Zer0 says, shouldering their sniper rifle.

“Thanks, Zer0.” Rhys shoots a look at August, who ignores it and leads the group down the stairs. Rhys’s hands clench on his flamethrower and he tries to control his breathing. He just wants to open a door and find Vaughn and the others behind it. Somehow, he doubts it will be that easy.

Zer0 splits off, heading up a ladder to the roof. The rest of them skirt the edges of the warehouse floor, wary, heading for corridor at the other side. Rhys gives Gortys a cut-off gesture before she can torch more things with her flamethrower. She gives a disappointed little sigh and they move in.

Rhys holds his breath as they push open one of the side doors. The room—some sort of processing area, with a broken-down conveyer belt threaded through the whole thing—is empty at first glance. On the one hand, nobody immediately trying to kill them. On the other hand… he can hear the sounds of a struggle. A struggle and then a crunch and Sasha’s voice ringing out through the building: “Hah! Take that, asshole!”

“Sasha!” Gortys yells, zipping towards the voice, flamethrower at the ready. August swears, and he and Rhys follow her, their own weapons drawn.

She bursts through a nearby door before they can get to her, holding a length of rusty pipe, freezing then abruptly beaming when she sees them. “Thank fuck.”

Rhys immediately steps close and wraps her in a hug. “Yeah,” he says. “Thank fuck. Are you okay?” he asks, pulling away and checking her over. She looks bruised and dusty, but he doesn’t see any blood.

August brushes past him a moment later to do the same thing. Rhys smiles and takes a breath. Maybe the others are still here too. Maybe they’ll be lucky for once.

“I’m so glad to see you!” Gortys tells her. “Is everybody else hiding out here, too?” Sasha’s face falls, and Rhys feels it like a kick in the stomach.

“I managed to get out when they were getting ready to run,” Sasha says, regret in her voice. “I tried, but Fiona—Fiona gave up her shot to get me out.”

Of course she did. “Who else was with you?” Rhys asks gently.

“Loader Bot and Vaughn,” she replies softly. “They… I think they were keeping Vaughn drugged? He seemed pretty out of it.”

“Not Yvette?” Rhys asks, though he’s distracted by the cold dread curling through his stomach.

Sasha shakes her head slowly.

“Shit,” he says. “Fuck. Goddammit.”

August is the one who says, “Hey. We don’t know anything for sure. Let’s not panic about it until we figure it more of the details.”

“The ones who grabbed me are definitely Hyperion,” Sasha says. “I’d recognize that brand of asshole _anywhere_.”

Rhys grits his teeth. “Okay. So. Where are they headed now?”

“They seemed pretty panicked,” Sasha says. “Like they knew they had to get out and get out fast. They were saying something about getting to ‘the tunnels’,” she adds.

“I know where this is,” Zer0 comments.

Rhys sighs his relief. “Well, at least there’s that.” He tries to tamp down on the anger that’s bubbling up inside of him—it’s not going to do anybody any good right now. He feels foolish—feels _used._ He deserves a lot of things, but he doesn’t deserve this. The people he _loves_ don’t deserve this, most importantly. “We need to go,” Rhys says. “We have to find them, before…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.

Sasha walks with him and Gortys while the others go back to August’s transport. “They didn’t expect you to come so fast,” Sasha tells him.

“Tell us what happened when they—when they grabbed you and Fi,” Rhys says. “Did they say anything?”

“What, like monologuing their evil plan?”

“I don’t know, they seem incompetent enough for it,” Rhys says.

“There was a lot of swearing that they were gonna make you pay,” Sasha says. “Not much about _how_ , though.”

“Figures.” Rhys sighs.

“Yeah, well, apparently they aren’t _quite_ as dumb as they seem,” Sasha says.

“They did manage to catch _you two_ , and I know that’s not easy,” Rhys allows.

“Thanks,” Sasha says. “Don’t think Vaughn went quietly either.”

“Probably not,” Rhys replies with a sigh and they get in the car. “I just. Need to get everyone safe.”

“We will,” Sasha says, and there’s steel in her voice. “Nobody gets away with hurting my family.”

“That’s what I said,” Rhys replies. “Or, I would have.” She squeezes his shoulder.

“Let’s go get ’em!” Gortys says.

Sasha grins. “What she said.”

//

Zer0 sends an ECHO with some coordinates: tunnels, hopefully the same tunnels that Sasha had mentioned her kidnappers discussing. Sasha pokes around the supply cache in the back of the ’Runner, getting herself armed, while Rhys starts driving. Gortys babbles to them both. It’s kind of nice. Soothing. She tells them about what she and Loader Bot have been up to lately. She pulls up her display and shows them a gallery of selfies taken in the Highlands and the Dust.

“Is that a thresher?” Sasha asks, alarmed. Gortys giggles. All of Rhys’ friends are highly disturbing.

“What if we avoided things that would kill us? What if we did that?” Rhys grumbles.

“Aw, it wasn’t that dangerous,” Gortys says. “I only nearly got eaten, like, one time!”

“See, nearly, that’s good,” Sasha points out.

“Okay, sure,” Rhys says. “But you know what would be better? _Not nearly getting eaten._ ”

“Rhys is such a worry-wart sometimes,” Gortys whispers, clearly talking to Sasha and probably not intending Rhys to hear her.

“He’s very protective,” Sasha agrees, smiling sideways at Rhys.

“With good reason!” Rhys exclaims.

“But that’s why we’re gonna get our friends back!” Gortys says. “Because Rhys will do _anything_ to get our friends back! Even things that aren’t really great ideas!”

Rhys resists slamming his head against the steering wheel.

Sasha laughs. “Exactly, Gortys. Exactly.”

“You guys are the worst,” Rhys says.

“Liar,” Sasha replies. “You love us.” He does. More than anything. “We just have to live with the disappointment of not being his favorite,” she continues.

Rhys opens his mouth and closes it again and Sasha laughs. “It’s okay, Rhys,” Gortys says sweetly. “We’ll find Vaughn.”

Something catches in Rhys’s chest. “You said they had him drugged?” he asks Sasha.

“I think he would have kicked a couple of asses if they didn’t.”

Rhys smiles a little. “Yeah,” Rhys says. “He would have.”

“Anyway, I’m not _sure_ because they were smart enough to keep us separated, but when I did see him he definitely didn’t seem like himself,” she says.

Cold fury twists through him, and his hands tighten on the steering wheel. He concentrates on the signal from August’s transport. Sasha and Gortys keep talking, but Rhys can’t focus on the words. He just wants Vaughn back. Wants to hear his voice making fun of Rhys for being so scared, wants one of his hugs that always leave Rhys breathless, both because they’re too tight and too much.

He wants _Vaughn_. Has, for a long damn time. It’s gone too long without admitting that, to anyone but himself. Vaughn might not need him anymore, but Rhys has come to realize that _he_ needs Vaughn. Vaughn is his lifeline, in so many ways.

They finally pull in behind August and Rhys grits his teeth. “If they’re not here…” he says.

“We’ll find where they are and get them,” Sasha says. She sounds perfectly confident, and Rhys smiles at her gratefully and tries absorb some of that for himself.

If it’s possible, they take even more weapons this time. He replaces Gortys’s flamethrower with a shotgun and gives Sasha his latest SMG.

Sasha tests the sights and the grip and shoots him a grin. “Nice.”

“Keep it,” he says.

She beams at him. “Really?”

“Yeah, Sash,” he says. “I mean, I kind of make them for you anyway. Just tell me if anything needs tweaking and I’ll update it,” he says.

“Will do,” she promises, holstering the gun at her thigh.

He grabs his own weapon and follows the ladies as they forge ahead. The tunnels are… creepy. And dark. And Rhys hates these assholes even more now.

“Old thresher warrens,” August mutters. “Hyperion cleared the threshers out, and the smugglers moved right in.”

“Yay,” Rhys deadpans.

“Hey, at least there are no threshers,” August says.

“ _Probably_ ,” Sasha adds.

“Moving faster would only serve us well, and we should do that now,” Zer0 interrupts.

Rhys nods and lifts his hand to shine the light further down the tunnel. “Can you scan for… heat signatures, or something?” Sasha asks him.

“Course,” he murmurs. He activates his ECHO eye. “There’s a cluster ahead about a thousand yards, but they’re close enough that I can’t distinguish the shapes.”

“So it could be them, or it could be a spiderant nest,” August says.

“Thanks, Little Miss Sunshine,” Rhys grumbles.

“I’m just saying we should be prepared for them!” August retorts.

“I don’t like spiderants,” Gortys says. “They’re creepy.”

“Spiderants have guards,” Zer0 offers. “We’d have been attacked before we made it this far.”

Gortys hoots softly and starts speeding up.

“Be careful,” Rhys calls after her.

“She’s made of metal,” August points. out. “And fought the Traveler. I think she can handle it.”

“You’re forgetting about the part where she scooped us up to pilot her during that fight,” Rhys says, but the conversation is cut short when Gortys’s hushed voice comes over their comms.

“Guys, I see light up ahead!”

“Enhance feed,” Rhys mutters. Sasha mutters angrily beside him, but he ignores her. “Gortys, don’t go in without us,” he murmurs over the line and looks out her eyes. There is light, but there’s still no way to tell _what_ the light is coming from or why.

“Okay, but hurry up!” Gortys sounds impatient. Rhys knows the feeling. Then he hears a warning shot—he hopes—in the distance.

“Okay, time to move a little faster,” he says and Zer0 dashes down the tunnel ahead of them. He hears a yell, and oh, thank _fuck_ , he knows that yell.

“Fiona!” Sasha says, sprinting.

They clearly know they’re caught. And of course Fiona took the opportunity to fight back. Rhys runs after Sasha. He’s ready to finish this.

By the time Rhys reaches the wide cavern where the fighting is happening, everyone else has already joined the fray. Someone’s gotten Fiona a shotgun, so all he has to do is slot into cover and help pick off kidnappers. Rhys looks frantically around for Vaughn, but doesn’t see him. LB’s nowhere to be seen, either. Maybe it’s not too much to hope that LB’s covering Vaughn.

“Where’s Vaughn?” he shouts to Fiona, running to cover her.

“I don’t know! They threw Vaughn and LB in a different rig,” Fiona yells back. “I think they were planning to rendezvous further down the tunnels!”

Rhys grits his teeth and focuses on clearing a path. “Are you okay?” Rhys manages to ask between shots.

“I’m better _now_ ,” Fiona says, taking down one of the bandits with a shot to the throat.

“Sure, yeah,” Rhys nods, blanching a little at the gout of blood.

“Rhys!” she shouts, and he ducks down in time for her to get a shot at another one.

Rhys takes a deep breath and goes back to shooting. The sooner they finish off these bandits, the sooner they can track down the others. Finally it goes quiet, and Gortys chirps an all-clear.

“Okay, let’s find LB and Vaughn,” Rhys says. “And get the hell out of these creepy caves.”

Sasha is rummaging around in the pockets of one of the dead bandits, and when she straightens up, there’s an ECHO in her hand, which she tosses to Rhys. “Come on,” she says.

He hacks into it quickly and confirms that Vaughn and LB are somewhere in the tunnels. “Thank fuck,” he says.

“Come on!” Gortys says, rolling away. Rhys runs as fast as he can to catch up.

“Vaughn!” he yells. He can’t really hold it in anymore and he has no idea where they are. At least the tunnel doesn’t branch. Soon he can see a commotion ahead. All he can really see is Gortys moving around and firing her weapon. He sprints faster. The others are right on his heels.

This group doesn’t have as many weapons. Rhys stops Sasha from killing the last one with a hand on her arm. “Where’s Vaughn?” he asks. He’s pretty sure he’s never in his life managed to sound menacing like that, but he’ll take it.

“There—there’s a cavern further down where the tunnel systems converge,” says the man, and there’s real fear in his eyes.

“How many more?” Sasha snaps.

“Only a few,” he replies. “The rest of us were supposed to stop you before you got there.”

“Oops,” Rhys says.

“I’m guessing you have some kind of big, showy finale planned,” Fiona says, prodding the man with her shotgun. “Want to let us in on the details?” She smiles. “I’ll even let you keep your kneecaps.”

He puts his hands over his knees and shrinks back. “It’s rigged with explosives,” he says.

“Of course it is,” August grumbles.

“No problem,” Rhys mumbles back. “Shit.”

“You’re the expert on this shit,” August says. “You can take care of it.” He sounds… sure, not questioning. Which is weird. But kind of nice.

“Okay,” Rhys says. “Okay. We need to get Vaughn and LB out of there before they get any ideas.”

“I will take the lead,” Zer0 replies.

“We’ll follow a bit behind. Tell us what you see. Hopefully there will be a good place for me to disarm everything. Or, you can take everyone out before we get there?” Rhys says hopefully.

“That is always my first goal,” Zer0 replies and dashes forward.

Rhys fixes the bandit with a cold glare that comes easier to him now than it ever had, back on Helios; all he has to do is think about what had very nearly been done to the people he loves most. He’s furious, and he’s not stopping now until this is over. No more delays. He lifts his gun and points it at him. “You shouldn’t have come anywhere near my family.”

Rhys still isn’t an amazing shot, but he’s better now than he was when he first came to Pandora. Head shots are messy, but not if you don’t look. He’s got places to be and people to rescue. He holsters his pistol and follows after Zer0.

Sasha and Fiona flank him, and August covers their six. Good thing, because he’s practically blind with worry. 

“I see the charges,” Zer0 says in his ear. “Three guarding the prisoners. Nav points to your ECHO.” 

“Got it,” Rhys says, already pulling the coordinates up on his palm screen. He turns and looks at Fiona. “I can disarm the explosives if you can get me close enough.” 

Fiona nods, and he can see the gears in her mind turning, evaluating the possibilities. Her plans are terrifying, but effective. She runs it down with Sasha and August. Rhys can’t deny, he’s kind of glad all he has to do is deal with the charges. And he’s _incredibly_ glad that he’s not trying to do this alone. He follows, brain on autopilot. 

The first charge is at the main entrance. He takes care of it and then the others sneak inside. Sasha and August split up, each taking one side of the cave, creeping in the shadows of the walls. The cavern is full of old shipping containers and barrels. His ECHO eye picks out the anomalies—explosives hastily wired. 

One of the hostiles drops, presumably because of Zer0. Rhys gets to work on the next charge.  
_Hang on,_ he thinks. _Hang on, we’re close. We’re going to end this._

Rounding the next stack of cases to check for more charges, he finds Vaughn, and everything goes suddenly quiet. There’s another charge, he knows there is. He should take care of it. But Vaughn is right there and he’s stirring. 

_One more minute,_ he thinks, miserable. _Wait for me one more minute._ “Don’t fuck up,” he mumbles to himself. 

He forces himself to tend to the last charge just as the others work on taking out the last of the hostiles. He hears a shout, and the rapid pulse of an SMG, and he disarms the final charge just as Fiona says “we’re clear” in his ECHO. He scrambles back toward Vaughn, holding his breath. 

“Vaughn?” he says and sinks down to his knees at Vaughn’s side, tugging him into his lap. He’s breathing and his eyes flutter a bit, but. “Hey, bro. You gotta… you gotta wake up for me, okay?” Everything else fades into the background. He lays a palm against Vaughn’s cheek. “Please.” 

Vaughn’s eyes flutter open. “Rhys?” he asks and Rhys chokes out a watery laugh. 

“Yeah. I’m here.” 

“Rhys,” Vaughn repeats. His eyes go wide and panicked, and he struggles to sit up. “You’re in trouble,” he says, slurred. “They’re gonna—” 

“No,” Rhys assures him. “They’re not.” 

“They are,” Vaughn insists. 

“I stopped them,” Rhys says. “Me and the others. We stopped them.” 

Vaughn blinks, like he’s trying to process that. “What’d I miss?” 

Rhys laughs and the tears that have been threatening actually come out, and _god_ , it was so close. Too close. “Hey,” Vaughn says. “Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“Nothing, anymore,” Rhys says, scrubbing at his eyes, trying to pretend he’s not crying like a loser. Of course, that just makes Vaughn struggle to sit up. Rhys doesn’t stop himself from sliding his arms around Vaughn and pressing his face against Vaughn’s hair. “I was so scared,” he whispers. 

Vaughn’s arms come up around him, holding tight. “It’s okay,” Vaughn murmurs. Rhys makes a frustrated noise. Vaughn’s not supposed to be the one comforting him. He’s still crying and he feels ridiculous, but at least Vaughn is _here_ and he’s _okay_. 

There’s footsteps behind them, and Sasha’s voice. “Vaughn!” 

Vaughn looks up and around. “Sasha? Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, Vaughn,” Sasha says with a smile. “We all are. Because of Rhys.” 

“Did you find LB?” Rhys asks. 

She nods. “You’re going to have to look at his programming, I think they used some kind of virus, but.” 

“If they weren’t already dead,” Rhys mutters and Vaughn laughs a little bit. This is probably the part where Rhys is supposed to let Vaughn go—help him up, step away. He refuses. What’s more, _he can’t_. Vaughn isn’t trying to move away, so at least there’s that. 

On the ECHO, Fiona says, “August and I have LB and Gortys.” 

“Can I help you?” Sasha murmurs, kneeling next to Rhys. 

“We should. Uh, check him. Vaughn, do you have any injuries?” Rhys asks. 

“I don’t know, bro. I feel weird. And fuzzy?” 

“I bet you do,” Rhys mutters. He strokes his thumb over Vaughn’s bearded jaw. 

“I don’t think he’s hurt,” Sasha says. Rhys takes a breath and leans in to kiss Vaughn’s forehead. He hears Vaughn suck in a quick breath. He glances automatically at Sasha. She smiles at him and squeezes his shoulder. “I’ll leave you two be for a minute.” 

She disappears around one of the empty shipping containers, but Rhys isn’t paying much attention. He’s looking back at Vaughn. “We need to get you out of here, get you looked at by a doctor.” 

“I think I’m okay,” Vaughn says. “Whatever they gave me is wearing off.” 

“I hear you made some trouble for them,” Rhys says, laughing a little. 

“I’m a real troublemaker, you know,” Vaughn replies, but he’s still shooting little sidelong glances up at Rhys. 

“Could you. Maybe not? For a little while. I don’t think my heart can take it,” Rhys says and rests his cheek on the top of Vaughn’s head. 

“Hey. You saved me,” Vaughn says, and his fingertips find Rhys’s cheek. 

“Of course I did,” Rhys whispers. 

“Rhys, what… you’re kind of. You sure you’re okay?” Vaughn asks. 

“Yeah,” Rhys says. Vaughn’s alive. They’re _all_ alive, and the assholes who tried to hurt them are gone. “Yeah, I’m good. You don’t look good, bro. I… I’m sorry. I think this is probably my fault.” 

“Rhys, stop,” Vaughn says, bringing both hands up to cup Rhys’s cheeks. “This is not your fault.” 

“They wanted to make me pay for Helios,” Rhys says, feeling small. “By taking you. They knew just where to hit me. Knowing me is bad for you.” 

“Rhys, stop,” Vaughn orders, voice firm. “I already thought I lost you once. I’m not losing you again because you think it’s for my own good.” 

Rhys is pretty sure he’s going to start crying in a minute. “No you’re not, because I’m not letting you out of my sight _ever again,_ ” Rhys tells him. 

Vaughn curls a hand around the back of Rhys’s neck. “Don’t you have a company to run?” 

“I’ll find a way,” Rhys insists. Their faces are close enough that Rhys can feel Vaughn’s breath. “Nothing’s more important than you.” 

“I hate to interrupt,” Fiona says, sounding completely genuine. “But we really need help with LB. Gortys is kind of freaking out.” 

Rhys takes a deep breath, and lets Vaughn go. “I’m serious,” he says. “Not out of my sight. Come with me?” 

“Of course,” Vaughn replies and Rhys holds out a hand to help him up. “Whoa,” he says when he’s on his feet. “Little woozy, but not too bad.” 

“We’re on our way,” Rhys ECHOs. He doesn’t let go of Vaughn’s hand. Vaughn stays close, practically tucked up against him. Rhys hates that he loves it so much. 

He has to let go when he gets to LB, crouching down beside him and using his new eye and palm interface to scan him. “It looks like they used an EMP to take him offline, and then loaded a virus into his system to keep him down,” Rhys says. “Pretty sloppy work, though, hang on—” 

He’s keying code on his holographic display, cursing softly under his breath, and he feels a hand settle at the small of his back. He glances over and Vaughn is right there. He takes a deep breath, leans in to press a kiss to his cheek, and goes back to work. 

“You’ve gotta fix him,” Gortys says, pleading. 

Fiona takes a knee and lays a hand on Gortys’s head. “He’s doing it. Let him work.” 

“I’ll bring him back, Gortys. I promise,” he says. He knows how she feels and he loves LB too. He’s not about to let him stay like this. 

Even the _virus_ is Hyperion-brand. Rhys isn’t even surprised, considering. But that had been another mistake on their part: Rhys _knows_ the Hyperion viruses, even if he hasn’t had to deal with them in a while. And once he figures out which of the virus strains they’d used, it’s easy to slam down the virtual containment walls and start purging it from LB’s systems. 

“So easy,” he mutters to himself. “Please tell me the Children of Helios have… evolved beyond these assholes,” Rhys tells Vaughn. 

“You know we have,” Vaughn says, gentle. 

“You have, bro,” Rhys says earnestly, fumbling for Vaughn’s hand. “I just worry about the rest of them.” 

Vaughn smiles and squeezes his hand. “They’re learning.” 

Rhys’s palm computer chirps, and a message flashes across the display: _VIRUS ERADICATED. REBOOT Y/N?_

He hits Y emphatically, then closes down the display and wraps the cybernetic hand around where Vaughn is still holding on to the other. Vaughn blinks once at their hands and looks up at Rhys. 

“Hi,” Loader Bot says beside them. 

“Loader Bot!” Gortys yells, darting forward. Rhys has to scramble out of the way. Vaughn chuckles next to him as Gortys wheels herself right up onto Loader Bot’s lap. 

“Are you okay? The bad guys knocked you out, and and I tried to help, but then I had to run away, and then Rhys found me, and then we came after you, but I was so _worried_ that we weren’t going to find you, and—” 

“God, it’s just so cute,” Fiona says from next to them. 

“Yeah,” Rhys says and laces his fingers with Vaughn’s. 

Zer0 drops down from a pile of shipping containers. “Mission accomplished.” 

“Not entirely,” Rhys says darkly. There is still no sign of Yvette. 

“Let’s search the rest of the caverns,” Sasha suggests. “Hopefully she’s here somewhere.” 

Vaughn shakes his head, slowly. “I don’t think… hang on.” He squints, like he’s trying to remember something. “They grabbed us at the same time, but I don’t remember seeing her after the first time they knocked me out. That was before the warehouse. Maybe she got away?” 

Rhys bites his lip and starts checking the ECHOnet for signs of Yvette. For messages, for pings, anything. 

Sasha had said that the bandits had smashed their ECHO comms. Maybe that was why. But dammit, he’s better than them. He’s better than _her._ He starts looking for the less obvious. He finally sees a message posted at a public board. “Rhys, Need lunch money again. Jakobs Cove. -Y” 

The timestamp is from a few hours ago. “Found her,” Rhys says, relief flooding through him and leaving him giddy. 

“We’ll go pick her up,” August says, nodding at Zer0. “You just, uh—ow.”

Sasha pulls her foot away from his ankle and smiles sweetly. “Take your time and get Vaughn back to base.” 

Rhys gets up and suddenly Fiona, Sasha, Gortys, and LB all have him surrounded, hugging him tight. He’s _definitely_ crying now. When they finally let him go, he sits down on a crate with a thump. He feels Vaughn’s arm go around his shoulders and leans against his side. “The past couple of days have been a lot,” Rhys says quietly. 

“You’re telling me,” Vaughn says, voice warm. 

“I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. It’s nothing compared to what you—”

He stops, and Vaughn squeezes his shoulder right above the start of the metal. “It’s not a competition.” 

Rhys nods and takes a breath. “Let’s get out of these creepy caves.” 

“I’m with you, bro,” Vaughn laughs. “C’mon, they brought LB and me in on bikes. Let’s go steal them.” 

“Fun,” Rhys mutters, following Vaughn up through the tunnels, marveling at how quickly he moves and how he doesn’t flinch at any of the little piles of bandits they pass. “Wait,” Rhys says. “My car is here.” 

Vaughn laughs. “We’re stealing them anyway. We can rig it somehow.” 

Vaughn’s laughter cracks something open in Rhys’s chest, and he feels like he can breathe again for the first time in two days. Vaughn wants bikes, so Vaughn is gonna get bikes. 

Rhys reaches out and catches his wrist and tugs him into a hug. “You’re my favorite person in the universe,” he says. 

Vaughn wraps his arms around Rhys’s middle and squeezes back. “Well, you’re mine.” 

Rhys rests his cheek on the top of Vaughn’s head for a moment. “Okay,” he says, pulling back. “Let’s go steal us some bikes. And also probably rig up some sort of thing to tow them on.” 

An hour later, Rhys and Vaughn are in the ’Runner headed for the Helios base, pulling a makeshift trailer containing not only the bikes, but also three crates of Hyperion weaponry that had been stashed at the rendezvous point. Rhys is trying to be happy about that and not disappointed about the fact that he’s not still hugging Vaughn. He bites his lip and reaches out to take Vaughn’s hand. 

Vaughn squeezes back. He’s taking the whole “kidnapped and drugged by ex-Hyperion assholes” a lot better than Rhys is. Rhys isn’t sure why that is, except that of the two of them, Vaughn is definitely the superior model. “How are you so calm?” Rhys asks after a minute. 

“Because you came after us, just like I knew you would.” Vaughn says, shrugging. “I would have done the same for you,” he adds. 

Rhys takes a breath and pulls over to the side of the road. “The thing is,” he says, staring forward, one hand gripping the steering wheel tightly, the other still in Vaughn’s hand. “I love you so much.” He can’t quite bring himself to _look_ at Vaughn, even though he desperately needs to know what Vaughn is thinking. 

“Rhys!” Vaughn says insistently after a moment of silence. 

Rhys takes a breath and forces himself to look over at Vaughn. Vaughn is smiling so hard that his eyes are crinkling, the look he’s giving Rhys so, so damn warm. 

“I love you too, Rhys,” he says earnestly. 

“I want to. Can we.” Rhys stops and laughs at himself, running his flesh hand through his hair. “I was so afraid I’d lost you without telling you that.” 

“I knew, bro,” Vaughn says, squeezing his hand again. “I’ve _known_. I was just… waiting for you to get with the program.” 

“That’s not my strong suit,” Rhys mumbles. 

Vaughn squeezes his hand and leans close. “I knew you’d get there eventually.” 

“Vaughn,” Rhys says, helpless, and Vaughn laughs and uses their joined hands to tug Rhys in for a kiss. 

“You are my best friend,” Vaughn murmurs, “and I also spend a lot of my free time thinking about kissing you. Are you caught up now?” 

“Yes. Totally caught up. Ready for the kissing,” Rhys says, laughing. 

Vaughn reaches up and threads his fingers through Rhys’s hair, angling their heads so their mouths are perfectly aligned. Something in Rhys’s chest loosens and breaks free. Vaughn’s beard is soft and his mouth is warm and insistent. He wraps a hand around the back of Vaughn’s neck. Everything is suddenly perfect. 

Well. Everything except for the fact that they’re crammed into the front seat of a ’Runner. For one thing, they’re not anywhere near a bed; for another, stopping at the roadside like this isn’t exactly the safest move. Then again, maybe the bed thing is presumptuous. The roadside thing is definitely a valid concern. 

“We should probably keep going,” Rhys says, but he can’t seem to pull away from Vaughn. 

“Probably,” Vaughn agrees, dipping in to kiss Rhys again. And again. 

“I’d rather find a bed than certain death,” he says when he has his breath back. 

“Bed _would_ be good,” Vaughn says, thumbs stroking over Rhys’s skin. “Mine is pretty nice, considering.” 

Rhys shivers a little, feeling warm all over. “Okay,” he says firmly. “I’m driving again.” 

He forces himself to pull away from Vaughn’s smile and put the ’Runner into gear. Once they’re going again, Vaughn takes his hand again. Rhys finally, _finally_ lets himself believe that Vaughn is safe. He wasn’t kidding about the sight thing, though. He’s not sure how he’s going to make that work, but he’s pretty determined. Step one is to get back to the Helios base. Everything else can come later. 

Unfortunately, Rhys hadn’t taken into account that as soon as the Children saw his ’Runner, and _Vaughn_ , they’d mob them in delight. Rhys has to laugh. It’s really the only response, even if he’d rather be elsewhere. Vaughn’s laughing, too. Rhys reluctantly lets go of his hand so they can both get out of the ’Runner. He just leans against the fender and watches Vaughn circulate, smiling and accepting handshakes and pats on the back. Rhys gets some of it too, but they’re still pretty in awe of him. Which has yet to stop being fucking weird. 

In short order, Vaughn has some of the Children taking care of the stolen cargo. Rhys is still nervous about what August and Zer0 might find when they go to Hollow Point, but he’s also distracted by more… pressing matters. 

He doesn’t really know what to do, so he just hangs back out of the way and watches Vaughn direct everyone. He still kind of can’t believe that Vaughn actually—that they— _god_. He brings his fingertips up to his lips, remembering. Vaughn kissed him. Vaughn _loves_ him. 

Vaughn catches his eye while he’s touching his mouth, of course. The look he gets is pure heat and Rhys is really, really ready to find somewhere private. 

Happily, a distraction appears a few minutes later, in the form of another ’Runner carrying August, Fiona, Sasha, and, thank fuck, Yvette, alive and apparently unharmed. Vaughn meets his eye over the crowd and nods his head toward the hall leading back to his room, then turns and starts in that direction. Rhys extracts himself from the group he’s with and follows. 

Vaughn is waiting for him at the top of the first set of stairs, hands in his pockets, lips quirked into a grin. “Hey.” 

“Hey, uh. Hey. Yourself.” Rhys smiles awkwardly, ready to be directed. He’s done enough directing for today. 

“C’mere,” Vaughn says because he’s the best and he _knows_ Rhys. Rhys steps closer. Vaughn’s eyes crinkle at the edges when he smiles. “There was kissing earlier,” he says, looking up at Rhys. “It was nice. Let’s do it again.” 

“I really agree,” Rhys says. Vaughn takes his hand and tugs him up the stairs. 

Vaughn’s room is in one of the more finished sections of the base. It’s not fancy or anything, but there’s a bed and a door that locks, so it’s kind of the best thing ever right now. Rhys sighs in relief as soon as Vaughn twists the lock. 

“I love you,” Rhys says. “I just. Wanted to say that again.” 

“You can say it as often as you want,” Vaughn says. “I’m… probably not ever going to get tired of hearing it.” He’s got a hand on Rhys’s elbow, gently guiding him toward the bed, and Rhys laughs softly and flops down, kicking off his boots as he goes. 

“How are you still standing?” he asks with a helpless laugh. 

“I spent a lot of time sleeping since they took me,” Vaughn says with a smile. 

The reminder makes Rhys’s breath catch, and something dark rears its head in his chest. But Vaughn is fine. Vaughn is _here_. “Stop standing,” Rhys demands softly. 

Vaughn laughs and pulls off his shoes. “Okay, okay,” he says and sits down on the bed beside Rhys. 

Rhys leans in, and Vaughn meets him, still smiling. Rhys gives up and just grabs onto him and tugs him over. Vaughn laughs and lets Rhys pull him against him and kiss him. It’s sloppy and the angle is all wrong, but Rhys doesn’t care. Not when Vaughn is warm and happy and _here_. Every moment of his life that hasn’t had Vaughn sitting on his lap is inferior. 

“I love you,” he says again. Because he can. Because there are so many other words he _wants_ to say, but those the ultimate point anyway. 

“I love you, too,” Vaughn tells him. “I’ve been in love with you for, uh, kind of an embarrassingly long time.” 

“Really?” Rhys is _delighted._

“You’re going to make me admit _how_ embarrassingly long, huh?” Vaughn asks. He doesn’t seem too bothered. 

“Duh,” Rhys replies. 

Vaughn rolls his eyes. “College. Like… within the first month.” 

Rhys takes a deep breath, because that’s… _oh_. “You never—” he says, and Vaughn shrugs, mouth quirking up in that little self-deprecating grin that Rhys sees a lot less of, these days. 

“I was the chubby accounting major,” he says. “You were _you_.” 

Rhys has to kiss him again. “You are _perfect,_ ” he argues. 

“I don’t know about that,” Vaughn says between breathless kisses. “But I’m willing to let you convince me.” 

And Rhys can do that, _happily_. “I’ve been in love with you for years, I was just… too much of a moron to realize it,” he admits. “You’re _everything_ , Vaughn.” 

Vaughn’s playing with Rhys’s hair, stroking the flyaway strands into place and then disarranging them. “Have I mentioned I like your haircut?” Vaughn says. “Because I do.” 

“Thanks,” Rhys says, ducking his head a little. “I like your whole… thing. The beard and the hair and—the whole thing. It’s. You look good.” 

When Vaughn beams, Rhys dares to reach out and tug at his hair tie. His hair comes down and frames his face and Rhys realizes he hasn’t seen it down since they were reunited. He slides a hand into the strands and kisses him again. 

“You’ve _always_ looked good to me,” Rhys says, because it’s true. “Probably at least a little because you’re always smiling at me like that.” Vaughn just grins wider and Rhys laughs. “Can you burst from happiness? Because I feel like I might burst.” 

“How about we skip the bursting and go back to making out?” Vaughn suggests, and he tugs Rhys in again. 

Rhys settles back against the headboard and cradles Vaughn’s hips in his hands. Vaughn’s fingers go to the buttons of his waistcoat. Vaughn doesn’t go slowly, exactly, but he takes _care_ , and it makes something warm and tender throb in Rhys’s chest. He’s never had someone look at him this way before. 

“Vaughn,” he says and reaches for the buckles on his shoulder guards. He’s so ready to have his hands all over Vaughn’s skin. But Vaughn is touching him like he’s something precious, so Rhys takes a breath and tries to steady his own hands. His eyes are warm and fond, but Rhys can feel his pulse racing. 

Vaughn goes for the buttons of his shirt. He’s careful, but goes startlingly fast for a dude who hasn’t worn a real shirt in literally months. He leans in and mouths at Rhys’s jaw as he works. Rhys tips his head back and sighs happily. 

“God, it’s been way too long since somebody kissed me,” he breathes. It’s been since before… everything. Shit. 

“I can definitely fix that,” Vaughn says. He finishes with Rhys’s buttons and pushes the shirt down Rhys’s shoulders, until it’s bunched up at Rhys’s elbows. Then he moves his mouth to the blue ink on Rhys’s chest. 

“You’re a—problem solver,” Rhys gasps. 

“It’s what I do,” Vaughn breathes against his skin. 

Vaughn mouths at Rhys’s collarbone, just lightly scraping the skin there with his teeth, and Rhys gasps and throws his head back. Vaughn takes the hint, mouth moving up again to tease the line of Rhys’s throat. 

“You said you wanted to be kissed,” Vaughn tells him. 

“Mmm,” Rhys breathes as Vaughn’s lips move over his jaw. He wants it all—wants whatever Vaughn will give him. 

“Still with me?” Vaughn says into his ear. 

“Not planning on going anywhere,” Rhys replies. It comes out maybe a little too serious, but Vaughn kisses his cheek, then down to his lips again. 

Rhys manages to shrug his shirt down and flail it off of his arms, freeing them so that he can get his hands on Vaughn again. Mostly into his hair. It’s shocking how gorgeous Rhys finds it. 

“God, I like your hair like this,” Rhys says and presses their lips together again. 

“You know you don’t have to flatter me to get me in bed, right?” Vaughn asks, but he sounds pleased. 

“Guess not. Still true. Besides, I’m making up for lost flattering time.” He kisses Vaughn again. 

Vaughn kisses like he’s completely focused on it—like Rhys is a tricky problem that Vaughn is studying from every angle, trying to solve. He knows he kisses the opposite—easily distracted—but easily redirected too, because… _Vaughn._

“Okay,” Vaughn says after a minute. “No more pants.” His hands go to the fastenings of Rhys’s trousers. Rhys arches his back to let him tug them off. 

“You too,” Rhys says and reaches for Vaughn’s pants. Vaughn helps, and between the two of them they make quick work of the rest of their clothes. And then they’re finally, _finally_ naked, and Rhys tugs Vaughn on top of him and basks in how _good_ it feels, so much skin touching skin. He can’t stop shivering in sheer delight. 

“Cold?” Vaughn asks, clearly concerned. 

Rhys shakes his head. “Happy.” 

Vaughn chuckles and leans in. He drops kisses on Rhys’s jaw, his chin, his cheek. “I’m pretty happy, too.” He nuzzles back behind Rhys’s ear and says, “what do you want next?” 

“Just you,” Rhys says. “I don’t… as long as it’s you, it’s gonna be good.” 

Vaughn laughs against Rhys’s temple. “No pressure or anything, bro.” 

“Sorry,” Rhys says. 

“Okay, usually it’s me apologizing for something that doesn’t need to be apologized for, bro,” Vaughn says. But he leans in and kisses Rhys again, and he rolls his hips at the same time. 

Rhys gasps, apologies flying out of his head. “Again, do that—,” he begs. Vaughn does it again and Rhys’s hands flex on his shoulders and he moans against Vaughn’s lips. 

“Okay, so you like that,” Vaughn says, and it really, really shouldn’t be so hot that he sounds like he’s collecting data. But it definitely is. 

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Rhys tells him. 

“Mmm,” Vaughn says. “Of course, I’ll be happy to take the information. But you know me, I like to make my own observations.”

As he says it, he moves his lips down to the side of Rhys’s neck, and Rhys can tell that he’s mouthing at the tattoo there. He moans, because that’s definitely a _spot_ for him, always has been. 

“Mm-hm,” Vaughn murmurs. “I had a hunch that would work for you.” 

“It works really, really well,” Rhys says and then groans when Vaughn sucks a spot at the center of that tattoo. Rhys’s hips jerk up without his permission, and their cocks slide together, and Vaughn sucks in a sharp breath against his skin. “Please,” Rhys whimpers. 

Vaughn reaches down and wraps a hand loosely around their cocks and rolls his hips. Rhys gasps. He tangles the fingers of his flesh hand in Vaughn’s hair, and the metal hand in the bedclothes, and just holds on. Vaughn lets his hips guide his hand to stroke them both, slowly but not gently. 

Rhys bites his lip and tries to breathe. He doesn’t want this to be over too soon, but he’s not sure how long he can hold back. It’s been a long time since he’s had this, and he can’t ever remember being with anybody he wants like he wants Vaughn. So he tells him, just blurts it out on a breath. “I’ve never wanted anyone like this.” 

Rhys can hear Vaughn’s breath catch sharply in his throat. “Rhys, you don’t have to—“ 

“It’s true,” Rhys says and brings his hand up to cup Vaughn’s cheek. “I love you so much I can’t see straight, sometimes.” 

“Maybe you need a calibration,” Vaughn murmurs, lips finding the lid over Rhys’s ECHO eye. 

Rhys laughs. “Possible, but that doesn’t account for the times I felt like this before the surgery.” 

Vaughn pulls back, just far enough to look Rhys in the eyes, and his expression is… something. Soft, amazed, and so, so warm. “I think… I need to fuck you now,” Vaughn says urgently after a moment. “Or else I’m just going to tell you how much I love you until I forget how words work.” 

“What about both?” Rhys suggests breathlessly. “Both sounds good.” Vaughn kisses him again, deep and searching, grinding their hips together as he does. Then he pulls back and rolls off of Rhys, and Rhys has to bite back a whine. 

“Don’t —move—” Vaughn gasps. 

“Not planning on it,” Rhys replies and watches Vaughn move around the room. God, Vaughn is gorgeous. It isn’t like he _hides_ his abs, not anymore, but it’s different like this. Vaughn is _buff_ —the work that he’d had to do to survive on Pandora and build the Helios base is written all over his body, in his strong forearms and powerful thighs, the confidence in the way he carries himself. Rhys… is still pale and lanky, with bad posture. He’s amazed this is happening to him. 

Vaughn comes back with lube and condoms and Rhys’s eyebrows go up. Vaughn laughs. “We found the orgy room supply cache.” 

“Score,” Rhys says, and it comes out more breathless than anything. 

“Honestly, we were just storing it in here, but I’m pretty happy about it right now,” Vaughn murmurs. He leans in and kisses Rhys again. It starts out soft, slow, but builds until Rhys is gasping into his mouth and his fingers clench in Vaughn’s bedding. “I’ve got you, bro,” Vaughn murmurs. “Promise. I’ll take care of you.” His fingers glide along Rhys’s thigh. 

“I know,” Rhys says softly, with as much conviction as he can muster. Vaughn has him. He can let go, and trust Vaughn to catch him. “Tell me what you want me to do,” he says, hoping Vaughn will understand why he’s asking. 

“Let me touch you, now,” Vaughn murmurs. 

“Touch all you want,” Rhys says. “Please.” 

Vaughn nudges him gently back on the bed and kneels between his knees. “Lift up for me,” Vaughn murmurs, nudging at the backs of Rhys’s thighs with his fingertips. 

Rhys takes a breath and bends his knees, letting his legs spread. Vaughn opens the bottle of lube and squeezes some on his fingers, then reaches down and circles Rhys’s hole slowly. Vaughn’s wearing that look of focus again, and it’s that look as much as the feeling of Vaughn’s finger slipping inside of him that makes Rhys shiver.

Okay, it’s sort of also what Vaughn’s doing, because he’s _good_ at it, and what he’s about to be doing, because Rhys is pretty sure he’ll be good at that too. 

Vaughn crooks his finger and brushes Rhys’s prostate and his head falls back and he moans. Vaughn hums, like that’s an interesting data point. He keeps his movements slow and easy. This, after a long list of contenders, is apparently what’s going to drive Rhys insane. He can’t even manage to beg for more, faster. And he’s pretty sure that even if he _did_ beg, Vaughn would ignore him. That probably shouldn’t be as hot as it is. 

“I’m dying over here. Just so you know,” he rasps. Vaughn smirks at him and Rhys groans. “God, you’re so hot like this. It’s not fair.” 

“Like what?” Vaughn asks, voice casual like he isn’t slowly pushing another finger in beside the first. 

“Stop it, you know how good you look,” Rhys tells him. “And you’re all—you know.” 

“Do I?” Vaughn teases. Rhys groans. “Tell me,” Vaughn says, crooking his fingers again at the same moment. 

“In charge. I never thought I would like that, but—” 

Vaughn smiles and leans in to kiss him. “It’s kind of surprising for me too.” 

Rhys kisses back, helplessly, because Vaughn is still moving his fingers, and Rhys feels like his spine is _melting_. He moans again, because it says about what he needs it to say. 

“Think you’re almost ready for me, Rhys?” Vaughn asks against his lips. 

Rhys nods frantically. “Please, please, please—” 

Vaughn sighs, clearly in relief. “Good, because I don’t want to wait.” 

He removes his fingers and Rhys sucks in a breath as he rolls the condom down his cock. And then Vaughn is moving back in, one hand on the vulnerable inside of Rhys’s thigh and the other lining himself up to press against Rhys’s hole. “Deep breath,” he gasps. 

Rhys does as he’s told and bites his lip as Vaughn presses slowly into him. 

“You’re doing so good,” Vaughn murmurs, as he works himself in with short, sharp thrusts. “So good for me, Rhys.” 

Rhys lets his head drop back. “Of course I am,” he breathes. “This is all I’ve wanted for—so long—” 

Rhys slides his arms around Vaughn’s neck. Vaughn stills when he’s finally fully inside of Rhys, taking a few deep, steadying breaths of his own. “Oh my god,” he says, “that feels—wow.” 

Rhys makes a noise in agreement. Vaughn leans his forehead against Rhys’s cheek and starts thrusting, so, so slow and steady. Rhys clings to him and moans and tilts his hips, trying to get Vaughn as close to him as possible. He wraps his legs around him and Vaughn moans, too. 

“Rhys,” Vaughn moans into his ear. “Oh, fuck.” 

Rhys can only nod. Everything else in his brain is fading out, being overshadowed by how much, how _good_ this feels. The sick feeling that had settled in his chest when Vaughn was taken is finally, finally gone. “Never letting you go,” he moans. 

“Never,” Vaughn agrees breathlessly and snaps his hips, giving Rhys a thrust that hits just right and makes him shudder. 

This is exactly what Rhys has been needing. He’s torn between going boneless and pulling Vaughn against him with greedy hands. He decides on the latter and he moves his hands to Vaughn’s shoulders. 

Vaughn pauses for a moment, but only long enough to hitch one of Rhys’s legs up higher. The next time Vaughn thrusts in, Rhys rolls his hips up to meet him. This time they moan together. 

His thrusts even out then, going at a steady, even pace. Rhys is so wound up already, he knows it won’t take much for him to come. “Vaughn,” he gasps. 

“I’ve got you,” Vaughn says. His hands splay over Rhys’s hips, fingertips pressing in. 

Rhys grits his teeth, chest heaving as he arches. Vaughn kisses his chest, then moves one hand from his hip to wrap around his cock. Sparks dance up Rhys’s spine, and he moans loud and long, thrusting up into Vaughn’s touch. 

Vaughn’s touch is firm and sure and it takes him to the edge, then over it, easy as breathing.  
It takes a moment for Rhys to come back to himself and when he does, he finds Vaughn staring at him in wonder, pupils blown wide. 

“C’mon,” Rhys murmurs. 

“I—Rhys!” Vaughn moves his mouth but no more sound comes out. His rhythm goes off, then he gives one last thrust and comes. He pushes his face into Rhys’s neck as he moans. 

Rhys pets clumsily at Vaughn’s hair. His beard tickles now, a bit. So does his breathing. Rhys couldn’t care less. “Love you,” Rhys says. “I’m so glad we’re finally here.” 

Vaughn kisses Rhys’s throat, then his jaw. His hair is a mess, and he’s flushed and panting, and he’s the most gorgeous thing Rhys has ever seen. Rhys gets his hands back into Vaughn’s hair and gives him a slow kiss in return. 

When they break apart, Vaughn takes a breath and pulls out. Rhys whimpers and Vaughn strokes a gentle hand over his chest. “So, we’re doing _that_ again as soon as possible,” Vaughn says, and Rhys laughs a little. 

“Okay by me. Though I think you might want to rest up a little,” he points out, because, kidnapped and drugged. 

Vaughn laughs. “Maybe. Just as long as you’re here.” 

“Wild skags couldn’t drag me away,” Rhys says. “Well. They probably could.” 

“You’d fight, though,” Vaughn says, propping himself up on an elbow and smiling down at Rhys. “And I’d come after you.” 

“I believe you,” Rhys smiles. 

Vaughn kisses him. “Just like you came after me.” 

A little bit of fear tries to rise up in Rhys’s chest again. But Vaughn is pressed against him, Vaughn is kissing him, Vaughn is whole and here. 

“I can’t keep hiding in my lab, can I,” he murmurs. 

“Been trying to tell you that _forever_ ,” Vaughn tells him. “Literally all of us have.” 

“It felt easier,” Rhys admits. “You… you built something amazing here, bro. I don’t have a great track record with building things. Kind of the opposite, actually.” 

“I built it for us, dumbass,” Vaughn says. 

“You… probably needed to spell that out for me,” he admits. “I’ve kind of been. In my own head.” 

“Next time, I’ll just pick you up and carry you into the bedroom,” Vaughn promises. 

Rhys laughs despite himself. It’s a ridiculous image. “I think that would work,” he says when he’s done laughing. 

Vaughn reaches out and cups Rhys’s cheek with one warm hand, drawing him into a slow, sleepy kiss. “Sure it would,” he murmurs. “I have lots of good ideas.” 

Rhys nods and kisses him again. “You really do. Because you’re great.” 

Later, after they’ve cleaned up a little, Vaughn pulls the blanket up over them and slings an arm over Rhys’s middle, tugging him close. “I need to crash now,” he admits. 

“Yeah,” Rhys agrees. “Sleep. We can… we have time.” 

“Better believe it,” Vaughn tells him, kissing Rhys’s temple. It’s a gentle kiss, just to the side of the data port. He sucks in a sharp breath. “Sorry,” Vaughn says. “Was that not cool?” 

“No, I. It’s okay. If it’s you,” Rhys says. 

“Tell me, okay? If there’s anything that isn’t okay.” 

That’s a little harder, because there are quite a few things that could potentially not be okay… but it’s Vaughn. Vaughn makes everything better. 

“I’ll let you know,” Rhys says and laces their fingers together. “And same, okay?” 

“Promise,” Vaughn says. His words are starting to slur together with sleep, and Rhys laughs softly and tucks his head into the crook of Vaughn’s neck, breathing against Vaughn’s skin. 

“Promise,” he murmurs back. He feels when Vaughn falls asleep and follows him not long after. 

//

Rhys wakes with a start, thrashing, head full of blue static and cruel laughter. He tries to get his hands up, has to get _away_ — 

“Rhys? Rhys!” There are gentle hands on his wrists, and a voice—Vaughn, that’s _Vaughn_ , not Jack—in his ear. “It’s okay, you’re okay. I’ve got you.” 

“Vaughn,” he breathes, more like a sob than anything. 

“I’ve got you,” Vaughn repeats. Rhys takes a deep, shuddery breath and relaxes against Vaughn. Vaughn tugs him even closer, hands splayed wide on Rhys’s back, rubbing soothing circles. 

“Happen often?” he whispers.

“Yeah,” Rhys admits. “Every night, pretty much. Sorry.” 

“You don’t have to apologize, bro,” Vaughn murmurs, pressing a kiss to Rhys’s temple. 

“No, I—” But maybe, just maybe he doesn’t. He takes a breath, then another, and breathes out slowly. Vaughn rubs a hand over his chest. “Maybe someday I’ll be over it.” 

“This shit takes time,” Vaughn says. “But I’m with you, no matter what.” 

“I never doubted that,” Rhys says. Rhys pulls Vaughn’s hand up to his lips and kisses his palm. “Love you,” he says. 

“Always,” Vaughn says. He leans in, and Rhys meets him for a kiss that’s sleepy and slow and so warm, Rhys wants to wrap himself up in it and never let go. “Go back to sleep for a while,” Vaughn murmurs. 

Rhys nods and closes his eyes, basking in the warmth of Vaughn pressed up against him. He isn’t going to be able to go back to holding himself apart, now that he knows what it was like to have this. Vaughn will probably be relieved. 

He just. Wanted everyone to be safe and happy. He didn’t want to bother them. He wants to make amends, somehow, for everything that he’s done. Needs to, above all. 

He strokes his fingers lightly through Vaughn’s hair. “Sleep, Rhys,” Vaughn murmurs. 

“Love you,” Rhys whispers back. 

“I know. Still time to sleep.” 

Rhys smiles and kisses Vaughn’s forehead, then closes his eyes again. He lets his breathing slow to match Vaughn’s, and he drifts off, feeling warm and safe and loved. 

//

The next time he wakes, Vaughn is leaning up against the wall, watching him with a faint smile. It takes him a moment for everything to come back to him, but when it does, he grins at Vaughn. 

“Hey,” he says. “Whatcha doing over there?” 

“Enjoying the view,” Vaughn says, and he actually _waggles his eyebrows_. It’s ridiculous. Rhys loves him so, so much. 

“Yeah well, I’m enjoying your… face,” Rhys says lamely. 

Vaughn laughs quietly and saunters toward the bed. “Hi,” he says. He’s dressed—or, well, he’s wearing pants, and his boots, which amounts to “dressed” for Vaughn, these days. His hair is pulled back again. “I had to go take care of a few things,” he says, apologetically. “Make sure the place wasn’t burning down.” 

“They were relieved, I bet,” Rhys mumbles. 

“They seemed pretty happy to see me. Had all sorts of gushing to do about you. As if they weren’t already real fucking weird about you,” Vaughn says, smiling. 

Rhys groans and buries his face in his pillow. “They shouldn’t,” he says, voice muffled. 

Vaughn drops down on top of him, curling around his back and rubbing his cheek against Rhys’s. “Yes they should, you’re amazing.” 

Rhys just shakes his head and puts his hand up into Vaughn’s hair. “ _You’re_ amazing, bro,” he insists. “You built all of this out of nothing, you saved all these people from getting totally murdered by Pandora, you—you’re _thriving_ here. You’re a badass, you know?” 

“I know,” Vaughn laughs in his ear, kissing his cheek. 

“It’s just… I got them into this mess. You’re the one who helped get them out, helped them thrive,” Rhys says. “I’m just the weirdo who visits sometimes.” 

“You _are_ a weirdo,” Vaughn agrees, voice warm. “But you’re _my_ weirdo.” 

Rhys smiles against his pillow. “Yeah.” 

Vaughn slides his hand through Rhys’s hair. “Well, _today_ they were gushing about everything you did to save me, so.” 

“I never want to do that again, okay?” Rhys murmurs. “I mean, I will. But I don’t want to have to.” 

Vaughn holds his pinky up and Rhys hooks his with Vaughn’s. “I promise, we’ll up security and I will try my very hardest not to get kidnapped again.” 

“I’ll build you some sentry bots,” Rhys promises. “With rocket launchers. And lasers.” 

Vaughn laughs against his skin. “LB won’t let you build a robot army, remember?” 

“I’m sure I could get an exception,” Rhys says stubbornly. “Not an army. A battalion. Task force, max. Besides, if it’s in service of keeping you safe, I’m pretty sure he’d agree to anything. He likes you better than me.” It’s on the tip of Rhys’s tongue to say that he has no idea _why_ , but he has a feeling that Vaughn isn’t going to want to hear that. So instead he just shifts a little so he can press their lips together again. ”I’m glad you came back to bed," he says. 

“Me too,” Vaughn replies and kisses him again. 

It’s probably not reasonable for them to just stay here forever, but right now Rhys would be more than up for trying. “So, do we, um—” 

“We have some time,” Vaughn says. “Though, we should probably show our faces soon. The others want to see you.” 

A thought strikes Rhys, and he groans. “They all totally know about… this. Us. Don’t they.” 

“Pretty hard to miss that,” Vaughn laughs. Rhys groans. “You weren’t exactly subtle, Rhys,” Vaughn says with a smile and leans in for a kiss. 

“They’re going to mock us _forever_ ,” Rhys grumbles. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, bro,” Vaughn laughs. “They won’t mock us. They’ll mock _you_.” 

Rhys just sighs. “I deserve that.” 

“A little bit,” Vaughn says. “But hey, we all love you. That counts for something, right?” 

Despite himself, Rhys smiles. “Guess so.” 

It really does count for a lot, actually. Rhys curls his arms around his neck and presses his cheek against Vaughn’s bearded one. They breathe together for a little while, quiet. After a few minutes, Vaughn says, “I meant it, when I said I wanted you to stay. I know it’s going to be complicated, since you’ve got Atlas and all, but I want to try and make it work. I want you with me.” 

Rhys laughs. “We’re sort of rival CEOs now, aren’t we?” 

Vaughn smiles. “Not hardly. I think I’m done with corporate life. It always felt like the thing I _should_ do, not the thing I wanted. You, though. That’s what you wanted from the start. It makes sense.” 

“Not exactly how I pictured getting here,” Rhys says. “But… now I have the chance to do this on my own terms.” 

“So make them good ones,” Vaughn says, leaning down for a kiss. 

Rhys smiles and kisses him. “That’s the plan,” he says. “With you and the others to keep me honest, I can’t go wrong” 

“We’ve got your back, bro,” Vaughn promises. “Always.” 

Rhys just folds him up in a hug and breathes him in. Vaughn nuzzles his neck. It tickles and it’s perfect. “Love you,” Rhys murmurs, just to say it again. 

“You basically rescued me like a white knight, so I hope so.” Vaughn’s voice is warm. 

Rhys laughs. “Of all the things I expected to be called in my life, that is not on the list.” 

“You’re my hero,” Vaughn says, and it’s teasing, but there’s no sting to it at all. 

“Nope, because you’re mine.” 

Vaughn laughs. “This is getting ridiculous. Let’s go out there. See everyone.” 

Rhys grins. “Yeah, okay,” he says and leans in to kiss Vaughn again. He still has no goddamn idea how any of this is going to work, but he knows that he wants to be able to kiss Vaughn every single day for the rest of forever. 

“Hungry? I heard rumblings about a barbecue,” Vaughn asks idly. 

“What are they gonna barbecue? Skag?” Rhys asks skeptically. 

“Best not to ask,” Vaughn replies. “The less you know, the happier you’ll be.” 

Rhys slowly pulls himself back together, picking up the scattered pieces of his clothes from Vaughn’s bedroom floor. Picking some of them up makes him flush to remember them coming off. 

Vaughn catches him around the waist and kisses him again. “Hey, let’s do that again sometime.” 

“Ready when you are, bro,” Rhys says. He tips their foreheads together. 

Vaughn smiles from close up and grabs his hand. “Always ready.” 

“Then let’s go to this barbecue with meat of indeterminate origin,” he says and they make their way out of the room. Vaughn laces their fingers together, and Rhys is maybe squeezing a little more tightly than is appropriate when they head into the base’s common area. He isn’t embarrassed, and he isn’t scared, this is just… important. Vaughn doesn’t seem to care, though. He walks easily enough. 

Nobody actually notices them at first, but then it’s August who spots them across the way and he smirks and nudges Sasha. 

“Well, look who decide to show up,” Sasha says, crossing her arms and grinning at them. “Not gonna lie, I kind of wasn’t expecting to see you two for a while.” 

“It’s been a while,” Rhys protests. 

“We were thinking it’d be more like tomorrow,” she teases. 

Rhys feels the blush starting to rise on his cheeks. But Vaughn is right there next to him, and it isn’t like Rhys is embarrassed about that. He grins, hitching a shoulder up in a shrug and squeezing Vaughn’s hand even tighter. “Yeah, well. Heard there was barbecue.” 

“You heard correctly,” Fiona puts in, sitting down next to her sister. 

“Just don’t ask what the meat is,” Athena says darkly from her spot in front of the grill. 

Rhys blinks. “Athena? When did you get here?” He looks around immediately, and spots Janey standing over by the far wall, talking with a couple of the Children he’s pretty sure help maintain their ’Runners and Technicals. 

“Too late for all the excitement, it seems,” she replies. 

“We came as soon as we heard you were in trouble,” Janey says, walking toward them. “But you were real quick.” 

“It’s great to see you,” Rhys says. “And thanks. For coming to help.” 

“Anytime,” Janey smiles, raising an eyebrow at Athena. Athena nods, looking somewhat resigned, but Rhys is pretty sure if Janey hadn’t said it, she would have. He feels really, really lucky. They’ve got _two_ vault hunters on their side. 

Speaking of which. “Did, uh. Did Zer0 stick around?” 

“Nope,” says Sasha. “Don’t think they eat.”

“Maybe Zer0’s the smart one,” Rhys mutters, eyeing the grill. Athena smirks faintly. 

Gortys rolls up to him and tugs at his jacket. “I’m kind of glad I don’t eat,” she whispers loudly. 

“But you’ll never know how _delicious_ grilled skag can be,” Vaughn tells her, shaking his head in mock-sadness. 

Rhys laughs. “Stop talking about it, it smells better that way, so I’m sure it will taste better that way too.” 

Sasha laughs too. “You should be used to Pandoran food by now.” 

“I eat… a lot of fruit,” Rhys says. 

“Which explains how you’re such a beanpole,” Fiona says, a teasing twist to her lips. 

Rhys shrugs. Vaughn squeezes his waist. “I like him the way he is.” 

Rhys can’t help but preen a little bit. August makes a disgusted noise. Rhys ignores it. August is all bark when Sasha is around. 

He can’t feel anything but happy, right now—not with the people he loves the most _safe_ , and happy. He’ll even deal with the creepy adulation. If he’s learned anything from this, he at least prefers it to psychotic grudges. 

He and Vaughn find a space on a bench and sit down. Now that he’s not focused only on getting information and getting back out on the road, he notices that they’ve improved things since the last time he was here. 

“I _do_ like what you’ve done with the place,” he murmurs, knocking his shoulder against Vaughn’s. 

“Thanks, I think I have a real talent for decorating. Debris chic,” Vaughn replies, handing him a plate. 

Rhys laughs. “Well, it looks a little less like debris, if that’s what you were going for.” 

Vaughn smiles at him. “We’ve been trying to make it a little… homier. Might as well, since we’re here for the long haul, right?” 

“Pandora has its upsides,” Rhys says, mostly because Fiona is glaring at him. 

“Yeah,” Vaughn says and squeezes his hand. “It does.” 

Rhys squeezes back, unable to stop the stupid grin that’s taking over his face. He’s pretty sure that’s going to be a problem for a while. 

Also, it’s going to take a while to get the barbecue smoke smell out of his hair. He wrinkles his nose and scrubs a hand through his hair. He supposes on balance, smoky hair is a pretty minor irritation.

Sasha asks Gortys about where she and LB have been travelling for the past couple of months, and Gortys is off, excitedly talking about all the places they’ve been and the cool things they’ve seen. Rhys settles back, leaning into Vaughn’s side and grinning as he watches her roll around and wave her arms. 

“She’s so cute,” he murmurs. 

Vaughn wraps an arm around his waist. “She really is. Glad we got her back.” 

Fiona comes over carrying three glasses of something that Rhys isn’t going to inquire too closely about, settling herself on Rhys’s other side once she’s handed two of them off to Rhys and Vaughn. 

“Hey, big hero,” she says. 

He laughs and raises his glass her direction. “I just wanted to keep you guys safe.” 

She knocks their shoulders together. “You did good.” 

“Thanks,” he murmurs. 

“Has Vaughn convinced you to stay yet?” she asks. 

He nods, ducking his head a little sheepishly. “Yeah. I, uh. Was kind of being an idiot about it.” 

She snorts. “Can’t imagine.” 

“Shut up,” Rhys says with no real heat. It’s hard to get riled up, with Vaughn warm against his side. And Fiona doesn’t mean it, anyway. She’s smiling at him, and she knocks their boots together casually. “So what have you and Sasha been up to since the last time I saw you guys?” he asks. 

Fiona pretends to think about it. “Well, it has _been_ a while, Mr. CEO. But we’ve been staying busy. Sasha and August are talking about going into business together.” 

“Doing… what?” The possibilities are rather terrifying. 

“I think it has something to do with weapons,” Fiona says. 

_Definitely_ terrifying. But it’s what Sasha loves, and with Fiona really going after the vault hunting thing, he’s glad that Sasha is doing something she loves, too. He also remembers that he offered to soup up August’s weaponry at some point over the last couple terrifying days, so he’ll probably find out more about it sooner or later. 

“So have you been training with Athena more?” he asks. “When she’s not, you know, getting married and on her honeymoon.” 

Fiona’s cheeks look… suspiciously pink, and she takes a sip of her drink. “Sure have. She’s been showing me the ropes, getting me hooked up with some of her vault hunter contacts. And Janey’s been showing me a few things, too.” 

“You’re learning to fix engines?” 

“Among other things,” she says, looking studiously at her drink and _definitely_ not at Rhys or Vaughn. 

Rhys blinks a couple of times, and he’s just about to press—because there is _obviously_ some dirt there, and he wants it—when Vaughn raises his glass and toasts Fiona, voice warm. “You’re going to be the most badass of us all in no time.” 

“You just remember that, Hyperion,” Fiona replies, voice equally warm. 

“Atlas, now,” he reminds her with a smile. “I’ll keep your gun working right.” 

“Atlas,” Fiona says, raising her own glass. Rhys returns the toast, as does Vaughn. 

“And to Pandora,” Vaughn adds with a chuckle. “Hasn’t fucking killed us yet, probably won’t.” 

“To Pandora,” Rhys says with a laugh and raises his glass.


End file.
